Non-profit bloggers for whom I'm thankful

We are just a few days away from Thanksgiving, and I’m getting in touch with my gratitude muscles this week. If you’re anything like me then you’re probably a “lifelong learner” and love to read about bigger and better ways to engage donors and practice the art of resource development. One of the ways I feed my need to learn is reading other non-profit bloggers. Today’s post is dedicated to some of my absolute favs.
Joanne Fritz at about.com
I started following Joanne almost a decade ago, and I just love how she breaks down complicated non-profit things into really easy to digest bite-size pieces. She tackles the basics as well as the complicated. Click here to check-out a handful of her “fundraising basics” posts. When you’re done with those articles, I suggest you keep on clicking. I promise that you won’t be disappointed.
Joanne has been the “ring leader” for a monthly non-profit blog event called the Nonprofit Blog Carnival. She recently announced that she was stepping back and handing the torch to Pamela Grow. We all owe Joanne a debt of gratitude this Thanksgiving.
Thanks, Joanne! You are one of the best non-profit bloggers I’ve followed throughout the years. I so appreciate your point of view.
Pamela Grow at The Grow Report
As I just mentions above, Pamela is taking over “ring leader” responsibilities from Joanne as it pertains to the Nonprofit Blog Carnival. I think we all owe Pamela a big “THANK YOU” for stepping up!
However, Pamela is also the person behind The Grow Report, which deposits a weekly e-newsletter full of fundraising best practices in my inbox.
In addition to her weekly nuggets of wisdom, I’ve signed up for one Pamela distance learning sessions — “Nonprofit Monthly Giving: The Basics and More” — and I’ve purchased one of her eBooks — “Successful Fundraising for the One-Person Shop“.
All of Pamela’s stuff is simply amazing. If you haven’t checked her out yet, I assure you it is definitely worth the click.
Tom Ahern at Ahern Donor Communications
Tom has to be one of the foremost donor communications experts in our field. He can take a blah direct mail piece and make it sing. He can also transform your donor newsletter into a piece that inspires and raises money. He is simply a genius according to many of his clients.
I’m not sure how often it happens, but at least once a month I receive his “Love Thy Reader: About Donor Communications” e-newsletter. I just love Tom’s perspective on resource development and donor communications. His catchy subject lines and headlines always pull me into his stories. For example, his recent publication read “How the Evil Robot killed my monthly gift“. LOL! How can you resist opening that email?
I’ve participated in webinars featuring Tom. I’ve also purchased a DVD from 501 Videos featuring Tom. He is simply a treasure to the non-profit sector!
Click here to see some of his past newsletters. My advice? Keep clicking and then subscribe!
Chris Davenport at 501 Videos
I just mentioned how I purchased DVDs featuring Tom Ahern, and I did that through 501 Videos.
You know Chris Davenport . . . he is the guy behind “Movie Mondays for Fundraising Professionals“. His weekly FREE movies are awesome and always engaging. I especially like the fact that they’re usually around 5 minutes long and a perfect compliment to my first cup of coffee on Monday morning.
In addition to his free Monday morning movies, he sells tremendous DVD resources, and I’ve never been disappointed in what I’ve purchased. In fact, just this morning I received an email from Chris about something he is calling his “BIG BOX of EVERYTHING” offer. It is essentially 70% off of a lots of different videos and resources.
I’m giving this purchase serious consideration.
I know. I know . . . $489 is a lot of money, but I can seriously testify that his stuff is that good. I’m not sure what I will do, but I’d have to be crazy not to give this offer serious consideration.
Everyone else . . .
The risk of doing a blog post like this one is that you leave people out because you quickly run out of room. People like Dani Robbins at Nonprofit Evolution, my friends at Bloomerang, the Boys & Girls Clubs of America CEO’s Jim Clark’s blog, Gail Perry at Fired-Up Fundraising and many others.
Thank you to all of you who take the time to develop content and share it with the world for free.
ALSO . . . Thank you to those of you who take the time to read and comment on non-profit blogs. As I always say, “There is no need to re-invent the wheel. We can all learn from each other!”
Here’s to your health . . . Happy Thanksgiving!
Erik Anderson
Founder & President, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC
www.thehealthynonprofit.com 
erik@thehealthynonprofit.com
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